In episode 003 of our podcast, we're sitting with Ulrich Schulz, who has recently retired from his role as Chief of Powertrain Design at BMW Motorsport. From his start in 1986 until 2023, he was instrumental in leading the way on some of BMWs finest motorsport days, beginning in F1, through the V10 era, winning Le Mans with the V12 LMR, countless DTM victories and more. We go in depth into some of his greatest memories and the wealth of technical experience that he has gained at BMW. Join us for the masterclass. Be Inspired ---
00:00 - Start & Intro 05:43 - First Job after university; BMW Motorsport 15:04 - The story of the McLaren F1 engine 19:43 - The Powertrain Design Process 24:55 - Innovations - F1 & Road 26:43 - What drives architecture? 30:42 - Influence of V-Angle on Firing Order & Cross-Plane vs. Flat Plane 40:26 - The challenges of high RPM & BMW's first pneumatic valvetrain 51:27 - Power & drivability 56:55 - Thermal efficiency & Lean/Rich Combustion 01:06:05 - Reliability & oils 01:14:59 - Designing an Engine w/ No Regs 01:22:19 - The Evolution of the Design Process 01:29:30 - Hydrogen Fuels 01:35:43 - Wrap up and Fun Questions
Pay attention.
This is one of the most inspirational conversations I've had.
Here I sit with Melvyn Downes, retired SAS (Special Air Service) operator to talk about his life and experiences in the military and special forces, where Melvyn developed the unique and highly specialised skill set required to lead himself and teams of people in extremely challenging, high pressured environments where good leadership and organisation measure the difference between mission success and tragedy.
This podcast initially started as a focus on lessons appropriate for motorsport, but I quickly realised that while we did touch on a lot of essential lessons and wisdom relevant to our sport, they more importantly apply to any person with a commitment to be the best version of themselves.
I have much admiration for these individuals in the special forces who relentlessly dedicate themselves to be the best at what they do in an environment where the motivator is a potential loss of life, sharp tools indeed.
Through a career of constant improvement and progress across such a wide range of skillsets which transfer to so many areas of life and business, the special forces community are an untapped source of wisdom and learning.
In this 2 hour conversation we barely scratched the surface.. Definitely more coming, but for now.. Be inspired.
Melvyn: https://www.instagram.com/melvyndownes/
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00:00 - Start
02:55 - Childhood experiences
16:40 - Journey into the military
20:53 - Northern Ireland tour
23:58 - First encounter with the SAS (Special Air Service)
39:16 - Encouraged to join the SAS
41:56 - Gulf War; leading men in combat
59:21 - SAS Selection
01:05:08 - High performance environments
01:22:30 - Qualities of high performing teams
01:35:19 - Qualities of strong leadership
01:45:36 - Bad leadership / thinking outside of the box
01:56:08 - Mindset & resilience
02:09:32 - Fun/Light questions
02:13:11 - What's next for Melvyn
Back for Episode 007 and it's a bit of a different and fun concept this time as Jahee and Mike take some time to explore what vehicle dynamicists would do given regulatory freedom. The 5 key factors of performance we covered in episode 001 still apply here, so we're getting creative with where we'd go to get the best out of this. How about cooled tyres, no safety structures, active suspension and four-wheel steering 😁 The second part of our conversation revolves around how we'd optimise the car for the three cornering phases of braking & entry, apex and exit. Hope you enjoyed it as we did! -- Mike has a book published called "Ace Thinking" which takes the skills and experience he's gained developing race cars to create a framework for approaching tasks, engineering and otherwise. Many of the approaches to problems you hear in these episodes are communicated in the book, which you can find on Amazon at: https://www.amazon.co.uk/ACE-Thinking... All proceeds from the book go towards the Small Piece Trust.
Episode 06 and we are joined by expert dynamicist Mike Law to talk about Ride & Vertical Dynamics. The responses of the sprung and unsprung masses of a racecar to accelerative inputs from the driver and the track surface are super important parameters to control in the development of performance and so this is a particularly interesting element to understand. Here, we discuss the influence of ride performance on dynamics, why it is important, and the approach to development used in modern motorsport. We also finish off with a short community Q&A session. Enjoy! -- Mike has a book published called "Ace Thinking" which takes the skills and experience he's gained developing race cars to create a framework for approaching tasks, engineering and otherwise. Many of the approaches to problems you hear in these episodes are communicated in the book, which you can find on Amazon at: https://www.amazon.co.uk/ACE-Thinking... All proceeds from the book go towards the Small Piece Trust. This episode is also available on Spotify and Apple under the title "Wavey Dynamics Insights"
Episode 05 and we are joined by expert dynamicist Mike Law to talk about Anti Geometries.
Implementing anti geometry into a suspension design is largely used to control the aerodynamic platform under longitudinal accelerations (throttle & braking) by generating forces oppose pitching moments.
It should be used with caution though, and understanding what you're doing is key.
Learn about it here. Enjoy!
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Mike has a book published called "Ace Thinking" which takes the skills and experience he's gained developing race cars to create a framework for approaching tasks, engineering and otherwise.
Many of the approaches to problems you hear in these episodes are communicated in the book, which you can find on Amazon at: https://www.amazon.co.uk/ACE-Thinking...
All proceeds from the book go towards the Small Piece Trust.
This episode is also available on Spotify and Apple under the title "Wavey Dynamics Insights"
Returning again for Episode 04, we are joined by expert dynamicist Mike Law to talk about Ackermann Steering geometry. Covering the three main modes of Ackermann implementation, we explore what it's used for, how to arrive at the level of Ackermann you need in a given application, and some things to avoid in the process. Enjoy! -- Mike has a book published called "Ace Thinking" which takes the skills and experience he's gained developing race cars to create a framework for approaching tasks, engineering and otherwise. Many of the approaches to problems you hear in these episodes are communicated in the book, which you can find on Amazon at: https://www.amazon.co.uk/ACE-Thinking... All proceeds from the book go towards the Small Piece Trust. This episode is also available on Spotify and Apple under the title "Wavey Dynamics Insights"
As our Vehicle Dynamics Insights series returns for Episode 03, we are joined again by expert dynamicist Mike Law to talk about the myths and misinformation around chassis torsional rigidity. We start with a thought experiment to give the discussion some context and then move into some of the science behind the need for a torsionally stiff chassis and some of the design decisions behind a racecar chassis' strength and stiffness. The main takeaway of this one is that torsional stiffness is great but only to a point, and alone it's not going to win you races. Enjoy! -- Mike has a book published called "Ace Thinking" which takes the skills and experience he's gained developing race cars to create a framework for approaching tasks, engineering and otherwise. Many of the approaches to problems you hear in these episodes are communicated in the book, which you can find on Amazon at: https://www.amazon.co.uk/ACE-Thinking... All proceeds from the book go towards the Small Piece Trust. This episode is also available on Spotify and Apple under the title "Wavey Dynamics Insights"
As our Vehicle Dynamics Insights series returns for Episode 2 to focus on the widely discussed and debated topic of roll centres, we are joined again by expert dynamicist Mike Law. In this episode, we explore the influence of the roll centre on a race car's dynamics and discuss the considerations engineers will have in deciding where to place the roll centre, including some clever tricks which can be used to introduce some complex behaviours to find performance where we need it. Enjoy! -- Mike has a book published called "Ace Thinking" which takes the skills and experience he's gained developing race cars to create a framework for approaching tasks, engineering and otherwise. Many of the approaches to problems you hear in these episodes are communicated in the book, which you can find on Amazon at: https://www.amazon.co.uk/ACE-Thinking-Lessons-Engineering-Ultimate/dp/B0BDXFMGPR All proceeds from the book go towards the Small Piece Trust. This episode is also available on Spotify and Apple under the title "Wavey Dynamics Insights"
As our engineering insights series returns, we are joined by Mike Law, a greatly experienced vehicle dynamicist working at the highest levels of motorsport.. Sit with us over the next few episodes as we explore vehicle dynamics and dive in to some key concepts in developing performance in racing cars. In the first episode, we set the scene by exploring the five key factors influencing performance: - The Powertrain - Weight - The Driver - Tyres - Aerodynamics Mike has a book published called "Ace Thinking" which takes the skills and experience he's gained developing race cars to create a framework for approaching tasks, engineering and otherwise. You can find this on Amazon at: https://www.amazon.co.uk/ACE-Thinking-Lessons-Engineering-Ultimate/dp/B0BDXFMGPR All proceeds from the book go towards the Small Piece Trust. This episode is also available on Spotify and Apple under the title "Wavey Dynamics Insights"
We are Wavey Dynamics, a motorsport and automotive engineering consultancy, and this is our podcast. This is a place for engineering professionals, enthusiasts and fans to lock in to conversations with motorsport’s finest engineers.
Through our work in motorsport engineering we often find ourselves having great, highly technical conversations with engineers working at the forefront of their fields in F1, GT, WEC and more - it occurred to us that you might live for these conversations just as much as we do!
We’re going to be hosting guests with master level status in a whole range of disciplines within motorsport engineering & technology, covering their past and present journey and what motivates them before we get technical and dive in to their field of expertise.
Be inspired!
In our first episode we have Kyle Wilson-Clarke with us. He is a Le Mans winning Race Engineer who worked with Audi and Porsche on their LMP1 programs between 2013 and 2017 and now works for Porsche Formula E.
We covered his early life & journey into motorsport before getting into some great technical conversations of his experience of engineering in the Le Mans 24h race and working with the race winning Audi R18 e-tron and Porsche 919 platforms.
This was a really enjoyable and inspiring conversation with one of our sports most accomplished trackside engineers, so we hope you enjoy it just as much as we did.
More podcasts are on the way, so stay close!
#BeInspired
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Chapters:
(00:00) - Intro
(06:02) - Early Life
(11:42) - Motorsport as a career
(28:47) - Trackside Engineering: Roles & responsibilities
(32:57) - The Audi LMP1 journey
(37:26) - The science of tyres
(44:43) - Le Mans tyre development @ Audi Sport
(01:01:25) - Engineering at the Le Mans 24h (Teamwork & Organisation)
(01:10:23) - Longevity of human performance
(01:24:46) - Developing a winning team
(01:28:34) - Working with hybrid powertrains in motorsport
(01:32:40) - [Technical issues: minus one camera :-(]
(01:39:40) - Race engineering the Porsche 919
(01:44:11) - The 929 Evo
(01:47:10) - Engineering in Formula E
(01:50:14) - Career highlights & life outside of motorsport
(01:56:23) - Community Q&A
(02:01:28) - Lessons and advice
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Follow:
Porsche Formula E team on socials @ PorscheFormulaE (Twitter), porsche.formulae (Instagram)
Wavey Dynamics on socials @ Wavey Dynamics
